


The Ghosts in our Wake

by Fluidfyre



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Alien Sex, Anal Sex, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Awkward Sexual Situations, Comfort/Angst, Hand Jobs, Interspecies Awkwardness, M/M, One Shot, Post-Mass Effect Andromeda, Spoilers, Turians, Xeno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-20 19:38:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10669434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluidfyre/pseuds/Fluidfyre
Summary: After the events of Mass Effect Andromeda, Pathfinders Scott Ryder and Avitus Rix are on misson on Havarl. Settling for the night results in a cross-species liaison, and the morning after.





	The Ghosts in our Wake

            Avitus Rix and Scott Ryder emerged from the jungle, lit by the glow of their omni-tools. In a moment Scott pointed at an abandoned angaran homestead on the nearby ridge that matched the map point given as a safe scouting post. Scott paused to scan the underbrush ahead, before they jump-jet hopped up the rocky ridge beneath the violet and magenta glow of Havarl’s twilight.

            Avitus was the first to the top, and cracked the seals on his helmet to look over the landscape in their wake as he waited for Scott. It was another minute before Scott made it atop the ridge, and Avitus could hear him panting over their shared comm.

            “Well that was brutal,” Scott said, and came to stand beside Avitus, hands on his hips to take in the view.

            “Maybe you’ve been relying on the Nomad for too long.”

            Scott snorted. “And maybe my legs are half as long as yours.”

            Avitus chuckled as he scanned the surroundings for wildlife. Scott tucked into the house and scanned too, pulling vines and stray leaves away from the windows and around the door. Scott was already shucking his armour when Avitus came in and bolted the door behind them.

            Rummaging in a leg pouch, Scott dug out two rations and tossed the blue one to Avitus. “I think we should be able to reach the site by morning.”

            Avitus nodded and bit into his protein bar before saying, “If it’s not just a rumour.”

            Scott chowed his bar in three bites, patting Avitus’ armoured shoulder as he chewed. With a thick swallow, he said, “We’ll take it as it comes. The other lead was right, and now they’re with their families on Prodromos. They deserve the chance for us to find them.”

            “Yeah.”

Avitus cracked his armour, half-watching as Scott continued to kick and fling bits of his own around the room until he was down to his sweat-stained skivvies. Bare arms and legs, pale skin, and fine dark hair that matched the – what was it? – ah, the stubble on his face. Avitus flexed his jaw and glanced away, methodically removing his own armour and laying it on a water-stained table by the door. He heard Scott sigh heavily and the creak of the wide cot in the room.

            “You know, stopping for the night feels like success in itself. Suddenly the lives of all the Nexus and arks aren’t at stake, and the kett aren’t shooting at us. It’s odd the simple things to find satisfaction in.”

            Avitus chuckled and set his thigh armour aside. “Sounds like you never really saw active duty before Andromeda.”

            Scott harrumphed and opened one eye to look at Avitus. “Well, I can’t say you’re entirely wrong. When the Alliance found out my dad was researching AI, it kind of screwed over my career. Things weren’t the same after. And then everything fell apart here. Here… there’s room.” Avitus laid down the last shin strut and barely disturbed the cot as he sat down beside Scott. Looking out the opposite window for a moment, he gradually laid back beside him, hip-to-hip. Scott linked his arms under his head, closing his eyes again.

            “Didn’t mean to bring it up.”

            “I know. Kind of feels like he died a lifetime ago.” Scott was quiet a minute before he squirmed. “Sorry about the sweat.”

            “The what?” Avitus crossed his hands over his abdomen, relaxing more into the bed, shoulder-to-shoulder with Scott too.  
            “Oh uh, how I’m damp? It’s how humans cool off. Not the best design for combat armour, honestly. Feels good to be out of it. How do turians cool off?”

            “Hmmm?” The shoulder his pressed against was soft and pliant, cool and almost clammy. “I wasn’t overheating out there. I think there’s something about our necks and cowls. I wasn’t ever very good at biology.”

            Scott’s voice was right beside him, a relaxed murmur. “I hear that. My sister is the one with the lab smarts. I was always better at hitting things. Which she appreciated, I assure you.”

            Avitus chuckled and closed his eyes, one hand drifting down his side. It seemed Scott moved at the same time, their forearms brushing, and then their knuckles too. He lost track of what the human pathfinder was saying, as Avitus flexed his hand to allow more contact with Scott’s curious, soft skin. They half-linked a finger together, and then another, and Avitus couldn’t keep the twitch from his mandible. His eyes opened to rapid blinks, staring at the ceiling. What was he doing, what was he thinking, and why did being so close to Scott make him feel this wa –

            “Avitus?”

            Avitus tugged his hand back and cleared his throat, knotting his hands together on his stomach. “Yeah?”

            Scott laughed and sat up on his arm. “Think you zoned out for a moment.”

            Avitus coughed again, though there was nothing in his throat, but it seemed like something to conceal his need not to talk.

            “Here,” Scott said, and got to his feet with a springing step. He grinned and glanced back at Avius, before he snagged his field bag and pulled out a flask. “I brought us something.”

            Avitus sat up as much as needed, leaning against the wall at the head of the cot, and watched Scott swagger over. He was about to speak when Scott snapped the flask into two self-contained halves and handed him one of them.

            “I know we can’t drink the same thing, but I happen to have a very talented turian friend who can get almost anything. And she was kind enough to share some of her quarian brandy with me.”

            Tilting his head, Avitus accepted the flask and looked at Scott’s grinning face. “Full of surprises.”

            Scott sat back down beside him, leaning into Avitus’ shoulder. He sipped from his uncapped flask before he said in a low whisper, “That’s me.”

            Taking another swig from his flask, Scott corked it and shuffled down on the bed. From where Avitus sat up, he could see down the length of Scott’s lean body. Avitus took a sip of the brandy and let it sit in his mouth to tingle on his tongue. He shuffled down to lay beside Scott again, put off by the quickened pace of his pulse. It only seemed to worsen as Scott’s hand drifted up on of his thigh plates to find his hand again, giving it a poignant squeeze. Avitus gulped the brandy, and it burned down, crisp and clean. He hadn’t had a drink since the Milky Way…

            Scott propped up on one arm, facing Avitus, “You don’t have to drink it all, you know. Keep it.”

            Avitus put his flask down too, before laying back. Outside the violets of twilight were giving way to darkness, and the only light in the room was from a small lamp on the wall that glowed blue. There were sounds in the jungle around them, muted calls of animals and birds that dwindled.

            Scott let out a slow breath, taking Avitus’ hand and running his thumb up a talon and over his palm before he asked, “Is this alright?”  

            Avitus nodded and mimicked the motion, feeling Scott’s fingers, each pliable and giving, palm spongy and squishy. He swallowed dryly before saying, “Yeah. Yeah.”

            Though Scott turned on his side, Avitus closed his eyes, only to feel Scott’s other hand on his chest, unzipping his undersuit.

            “And this?”

            Giving Scott’s hand a squeeze, Avitus nodded again, and Scott’s hand touched his chest, fingers finding the leathery skin between his exoplates. He repeatedly traced downward with a light touch, finding sensitive nooks with his pliant hands, and Avitus’ pulse skipped faster. When he opened his eyes, Scott let go of his hand and sat up on an elbow, so he could find tender spots about his waist.

            Mandible flexing, Avitus turned and they touched forehead-to-forehead, sending a shiver up his spine as Scott found slit where already he could feel his cock hardening, and coaxing out of its protective, sheathed slit at his loins. Each touch was where a turian hand might find, but softer, human fingers not quite talons, and Scott kissed his cheek, sending a flutter through Avitus’ chest.

A sigh escaped him, prompting Scott to grin wickedly and run his fingers over the emerging, slender head of Avitus’ cock. Avitus’ mandibles flared again, catching Scott’s hair as he bent forward into Avitus neck. Scott nudged his head back, and soon there was warmth and dampness up the muscles of his neck, unlike anything he’d ever felt. Scott’s mouth was open on his skin, humming and teeth clipping up the tender skin of his neck. Avitus’ hand slipped and gripped Scott’s undershirt, prompting him to stop and pull it over his head

            Avitus reached for Scott’s bared skin, talons over the dark hair on his chest, following the line of it down the centre of his belly and the little puckered divot there. Scott sat up better, so he could ply the ropey muscles of Avitus’ neck with his mouth, each tug and lick sending a pulse through his cock, that along with Scott’s hand, urged its protrusion further, rigid and wanting. Avitus’ hand delved too, thinking of vids, of so long ago watched in private shame, and now, he felt the similar stiffness pressing against his hand beneath the boxer shorts Scott wore, and was met with a grunt against his neck. His hand found a way under the elastic band and was met with hard, swollen heat in his hand, and when he grasped it Scott tensed.

            Avitus froze and his eyes went wide, only to have Scott laugh against his neck. Each shifted, and soon their fore heads touched, bracing the other as each stroked the other at a slow, matched pace. Scott’s breath was hot against his mouth, and Avitus couldn’t keep the tremble from his mandibles.

            Opening his eyes, Avitus found Scott watching him, his cheeks flushed with a pink hue. Scott immediately grinned and kissed his upper mouth, squeezing his cock as he did and causing a hitch in Avitus’ breath. Avitus’ mandibles twitched as he smiled back, matching Scott’s pace with his strokes, taking care with each one to not squeeze too hard. He watched Scott close his eyes again and urge his hips into his hand, breath quickened and pre-cum smearing in his palm, and nothing else could touch the way the world dimmed into the thrill of his sighs.

            “Ahhhhh yes… yes, just like that, ahh,” Scott shivered and kissed Avitus’ face again, and they smiled at one another. “Trust me?”

            “Mmmm?”

            “Want me to stop?

            “No,” Avitus chuckled and gave a squeeze as he stroked, hastening for a moment, only to have it matched by Scott. There was a rumble deep in his throat and he nudged Scott’s jaw with his own mandible. “No.”

            Scott dipped down into his neck again, tongue and teeth swirling on his skin and drawing a groan from Avitus, until he was up by his ear and whispered, “You can fuck me if you want.”

            Avitus knew the word, adapted into his lexicon years before. But hearing Scott say it before the translator changed it into something else. A purred sound, husky and deep in his chest, a request, a want, almost pleading, and it tightened a pulsed in his core. Avitus was nodding before he could think more, and Scott grinned, kissing one of his mandibles again.

            Scott let go of his cock and left it to the cool air, and Avitus sighed out, releasing his hold on Scott’s own member. His eyes strayed after Scott’s ass as he kicked off his boxers and bent to get something else from his kit. Back in a moment, Scott grabbed Avitus’ cock with a lubed hand, stroking him fully and coating him, and Avitus could only sigh, eyes rolling briefly closed as he reveled in the slippery tingle that tightened another wanting knot in his gut.

            “You came prepared?” Avitus laughed a bit, breath hitching as Scott squeezed his cock.

            In one motion, Scott let go and straddled Avitus’ waist, bending forward to bite his neck more urgently now, a pinch of his muscle that made him gasp out. His slender cock was in Scott’s hand again, pressing between the soft cheeks of his ass.

“Wishful thinking. Let me do this,” Scott whispered. With his free hand, Scott pressed Avitus back against the bed, edging the lubed head of his cock against his backside.

            Running a hand down Scott’s thighs, Avitus watched his face, watched eyes close, and exhaled hard as Scott let his weight press down on his slender cock. The head urged through a tight ring, sending a zing up his spine. He gasped out again, moving one of his legs as his hips rolled, but Scott gripped his cowl and forced him back against the cot. Face-to-face, Scott closed his eyes and eased back, Avitus groaning with each inch as he sunk to the hilt in Scott’s ass.

            Soon crotch-to-ass, Scott steadied his hands on Avitus’ cowl, and opened his eyes again. Trying to reign in his heavy breaths, Avitus watched Scott’s smile widen, and tension gripped his cock. In that moment, Scott moved his hips, rousing a groan from Avitus, and he braced his feet on the metal end of the cot.

Avitus let his hands move as they willed, up along Scott’s hairy thighs and hips, letting them rise and grind with the motion of his hips, each move spurring his pulse and winding the tension in him harder. He looked over Scott’s lithe but toned body, blinking long and urging his hips up into him, when Scott dipped to bite his neck again and chuckle. It seemed natural then that Avitus gripped Scott’s still hard cock too, prompting the arm clutching his cowl to flex. They found a pace together again, Avitus pulling and squeezing Scott’s cock as his grinding gained pace, breath coming quicker and near panted. Scott gyrated and ground his hips, and Avitus rolled his head back before watching the other man again.

Scott closed his eyes, and Avitus watched as his mouth fell open, breathing a guttural sound as he rocked his hips with a little bounce to thrust Avitus up into his ass. As Avitus began to squeeze Scott’s cock with each stroke, he heard the gasps.

“Yes… ahh yes, yes, like that, fuck yes.”

“Yeah?” Avitus panted.

“Fuck …. Yessss…” Scott’s knuckles whitened briefly as he gripped Avitus’ cowl. His cheeks were reddened, lips parted and wet, leaving Avitus’ mind with thoughts of what other warm, wet, soft places might feel like.

Thighs tensing, Scott moved faster, and Avitus followed, his strokes becoming a hard jerk, thinking of that mouth, this feeling, the warmth, the tight clenching, and the overriding burst through him.

“Spirits, yes,” Avitus’ head fell back on the bed as he grunted, again, eyes rolling closed and stroking in time with his hips and Scott’s rolling hips.

A wicked smile on his lips, Scott rode him still, pulling the pleasure from Avitus and joining his hand on his own cock. Groaning again, Avitus couldn’t keep the rise of his hips, liquid eyes watching Scott sit up and grind down on his cock, leaving him numb and heady in the pleasure. It was then Scott’s head rolled slowly and he gasped hard, before spurts of hot liquid spilled over their hands and onto Avitus’ chest plates.

Scott leant forward and kissed Avitus’ mandible, and by his mouth. Avitus trying to momic the motion as he panted. It earned him a warm smile and chuckle from Scott, who met the pucker of the turian’s leathery mouth with his own lips.

“That’s a kiss for us,” Scott murmured, voice husky and half-panted. He reached down beside the bed to snag his undershirt, wiping the semen from Avitus’ hand before cleaning his own, still firmly sat upon his cock.

Avitus laughed once, grinning, languid on the bed, lost in the enveloping, soft warmth tight around his aching cock.

Licking his lips, Scott leant forward, slowly pulling his ass off of Avitus’ cock with a grunt and shiver of his own. He collapsed onto the bed beside Avitus, panting hard, red and sweaty, thighs chaffed pink. Avitus could only watch before Scott grinned again, and sat up to kiss his mandible and put a hand on Avitus’ bare abdomen.

Avitus shifted onto his side, allowing their foreheads to touch again, and Scott stroked over his body. Avitus’ hand moved in kind, nestled together, touching and breath coming down. Scott’s hand found all the places between his expolates, the sensitive skin, caring caresses followed by tender kisses on his chin, mandible, and brow, leaving Avitus dizzy and tired, the rest of the day’s exertions finally settling into his limbs. His legs went limp, feet hanging off the end of the cot.

            Scott’s quiet chuckle roused him. “If he were alive… my dad would kill me if he found out about this.”

            Avitus smirked, his eyes still closed. “Is that really what you’re thinking about?”

            “He literally fought in the First Contact war.”

            Avitus mandibles flared and he laughed, meeting Scott’s mischievous gaze. “So did mine.”

            Hand moving to Avitus’ chest, Scott said, “Have… you ever been with a human before?”

            Avitus rumbled and his eyes turned down somewhere between them. “Was it that obvious?”

            Scott’s smile widened as he chuckled more sweetly, and ran a hand up Avitus’ neck. “No, just thinking this is another kind of first contact, then.”

            Avitus pushed Scott’s face away and grumbled as Scott laughed more and kissed high on his cheek. Scott’s eyes drifted where his hand went, tracing fingers down the soft, leather skin between Avitus’ chest plates, before splaying his hand on the tender abdomen.

            “Guess we should get some sleep.”

            Avitus chuckled, mandibles flexing as they bumped foreheads again. “Yeah. Probably should.”

 

                                    *                                              *                                              *

 

            Avitus woke with a start and blinked rapidly in the dark, sitting up before he fully realized where he was. Patting the spot beside him, he felt a squishy thing and remembered what had happened the night before. His mandibles flared and he was up out of the cot in the next instance.

            Scott murmured and moved where he was left naked.

            Spirits, it wasn’t Macen. It was a human lying there. The human Pathfinder. Green and making it up as he went along just like Avitus.

            He stalked to the window and looked out over the tangled jungles of Havarl. They’d camped the night in the abandoned house while tracking hints of another turian crash settlement. The air was humid and cool against his plates, it reminded him of a day long ago, entrenched in another galaxy. Reprieve and a furlough after a long deployment, and Macen had picked where they’d go as a surprise. Getting their heads out of the training, out of the battle. He always seemed to know when Avi needed it, the planetfall and breath of fresh air, drinks and homemade food instead of rations.  

            “Everything alright, Avi?”

            Avitus’ mandibles tightened and he snapped, “Don’t call me that.”

            “What?”

            He turned to face Scott, who now sat on the edge of the bed. It prompted Avitus to reach for his undersuit and pull it on, zipping it up his chest. Scott watched him the whole time.

            “Don’t call me Avi.”

            Scott furrowed his brow and reached for his boxers. The motion was stiff now, compared to the ease in his previous posture. “Okay.”

            Avitus’ bare talons clacked on the metal flooring as he turned back to the window, hands resting on his hips. What would Macen say, he could picture the hurt in his eyes. No, it wasn’t even the intimacy with someone else, it was with a human. It was now when there was still so much work to do.

            That wasn’t fair. They’d been through so much shit with the kett, with Meridian, it wasn’t fair to blame his ‘humanity’ on it. It was all a shit show.

            Scott winked just like Macen would when he got too serious.

            Damn it, Macen.

            He balled his hands into fists and let a breath out.

            “Do you want me to wait outside?”

            Avitus closed his eyes and sighed again. He crossed his arms and turned around. Scott was fully dressed and had gathered the armour pieces scattered the night before.

            “I will, if you want. As long as I can bring my rifle.” Scott smirked.

            “No,” Avitus murmured. “No, stay.”

            Scott sat back on the bed and clasped his hands, watching and waiting as Avitus stop-started pacing and shaking his head. The turian finally resigned himself to sitting beside Scott on the cot.

            “If you need me to back off I will,” Scott said, and Avitus watched his fingers twist together where they hung between his knees. “No matter what, you’re not alone. And I’ll keep saying it.”

            Avitus drew a long breath and looked out the window again. The morning twilight was growing brighter, and they could hear the calls and whistles of bird and beast in the jungle that surrounded them. None of it looked like Palavan, none of it looked like any of the turian colonies they’d been to or defended. It should have been easier.

            “We were going to have a new life here, things were going to be different,” Avitus murmured. His brow drew together in consternation. “And it’s all gone. And now this?”

            “Then we work,” Scott said, and stood up in the same motion. He spoke as he snapped on his armour. “And it doesn’t have to be weird.”

            Avitus snagged his under armour cowl and tugged it over his head, watching as Scott made quick work of the last seals and locked his rifle in place on his back. He tried to ignore the fuddled ache in his chest, thinking of the soft pliable skin, malleable lips, and the laughter and sighs of the darkness too soon passed. Scott gave a brief wave without looking as he went out the door, leaving Avitus alone with their shared bed.

            It already was weird.


End file.
